Toys R Us Canada Selling Anime Again

[Yuukaa_Sa]

Hey, so for us fellow Canadians, if you follow business news, you may know Toys R Us have started to add HMV into there stores again.

I have seen a few Toys R us with HMV already, BUT....today I went to Vaughan Mills in Vaughan, Ontario and the Toys R us HMV section there was huge.

They had Vinyl, CD, DVD and Blurays for sale.
The crazier part was they had a very good selection of Anime there ranging from Sailor Moon, Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha, to Fruits Basket, Dragon Ball and more!

The prices were also very good.

Example,

Naruto 4 movie collection on Bluray was $29.99CDN
Other bigger collection sets were about $39.99 or $44.99 which is basically online prices at Amazon and RightStuf.

So yeah, just wanted to give a heads up for us Anime collectors. Not sure if this is the right section to post this thread. If not, sorry moderators!

Just wanted to share this news since we are living in an era where Wal-Mart and Best Buy are getting rid of physical media, while out of all places Toys R Us is bringing them back.

[Tylerfan]

Guess I’ll have to check out my Toys R Us at some point!

[nyaa]

Damn-all the ToysRUs stores here in the us have been closed for 6 years now.....!

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by nyaa

Damn-all the ToysRUs stores here in the us have been closed for 6 years now.....!

Thanks private equity firms.

[Takao]

For those that don't know, Toys "R" Us Canada is owned by Doug Putman. His family made their money as a Canadian toy distributor and small manufacturer. He bought Sunrise Records in 2010, a once prolific retail chain that had shrunk down to a few locations. Once HMV Canada croaked in 2017, he swooped in, bought a bunch of their locations and rebranded them to Sunrise. In the years since, he's bought Toys "R" Us Canada and a couple of other retailers in the UK (including HMV) and the US.

With that in mind, wouldn't it have made more sense to make these mini-stores Sunrise Records-branded? That's definitely where this stock is coming from (or going to if TRU can't sell it). They operate a standalone Sunrise website and retail spaces. I figured this would've been a good kind of sampler to direct people wanting a wider selection. Maybe it's a trademark thing? Maybe it's an attempt at doubling up on nostalgia? HMV was a bigger name in this country in recent history than Sunrise.

[nyaa]

Maybe he'll open some of those stores in the us?

[keitaro]

I ventured into my Toys R Us earlier. Picked up Castle in the Sky BD.
Nice place. They even have a nice manga section.
As for the Anime discs, they were all over the place. All mixed in with regular movies and tv shows :/

[Tylerfan]

Currently at my Toys R Us as well. Mine has the Yu Yu Hakusho 30th anniversary set, which was a hell of a surprise.

[Takao]

Originally Posted by nyaa

Maybe he'll open some of those stores in the us?

He bought FYE in 2020, which is definitely a more recognizable name to Americans than either HMV or Sunrise. He's got no involvement with TRU's U.S. operations, so you won't be seeing these mini-stores pop-up within that chain's resurrected locations.

To make the Canadian confusion worse, they operate a single FYE location in Toronto. However, they just treat it as another Sunrise Records location.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by Takao

He bought FYE in 2020, which is definitely a more recognizable name to Americans than either HMV or Sunrise. He's got no involvement with TRU's U.S. operations, so you won't be seeing these mini-stores pop-up within that chain's resurrected locations.

To make the Canadian confusion worse, they operate a single FYE location in Toronto. However, they just treat it as another Sunrise Records location.

That reminds me of the few remaining Suncoast locations in the US that are all basically FYE. They're nothing like they were 20 years ago. The one I went to, which is now closed, was still similar enough to the Suncoast that I used to go from 2000-2006. This was back in 2014-2015, possibly before they began converting the stores to being FYE copycats.

[Takao]

They've launched a web-storefront:
https://www.toysrus.ca/en/toysrus/Brands/H/HMV
https://www.hmv.ca/en/home